USA
Mail
Four people are dead and dozens have been arrested after Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol and clashed with police in a bid to stop Joe Biden’s victory being certified. Ashli Babbit was the first person confirmed dead after she was shot in the chest when she and dozens of other protesters breached security perimeters at the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon. Babbit’s husband revealed her identity to San Diego news outlet KUSI. He said Babbit was a 14-year veteran who served four tours with Air Force as a ‘high level security official’, a fervent supporter of Trump and ‘a great patriot to all who knew her’. It remains unclear who shot Babbit as the Metropolitan Police Department in DC conducts an investigation into her death.
Times
Thousands of President Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol to bring a violent halt to the formal confirmation of his election defeat yesterday after he urged them to “take back the country”. The mob overran police who were unable to prevent an invasion of the Senate and drew their guns to defend the House of Representatives as Democrats and Republicans alike pulled on gas masks and sheltered under desks and staff hid in their offices. Shots were fired in the Capitol grounds and one woman, a Trump-supporting air force veteran, died after being struck in the neck. An explosive device was said to have been found.
Sun
AT LEAST four people have died and several others have been seriously injured during a violent siege on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building where bloody clashes erupted in Congress on Wednesday. The violence erupted as rioters fought cops and pushed their way inside the building as members of Congress were meeting to vote and certify Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election. It came moments after Trump addressed his supporters at a nearby rally. “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol,” he told his supporters earlier on Wednesday. “And we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.
Express
DONALD TRUMP supporters stormed Congress in Washington and clashed with police as tempers exploded on Wednesday. Donald Trump supporters stormed Congress in Washington following a speech by the President on Wednesday. Rioters roamed around the building, smashing some windows and posing for photographs, before being forced out by police reinforcements. Police have confirmed four people died, one after being shot by a Capital police officer inside Congress with the other three killed by unspecified “medical emergencies”. Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi were among those who were rushed out of the building in astonishing scenes from the US capital.
Mail
A mob of angered Trump supporters has occupied the front lawn of Washington’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee’s mansion as they also surrounded state capitols in Texas, California, Georgia, Michigan, Kansas and Oklahoma. While chaos gripped Washington D.C., where one woman has been shot dead and dozens of police officers injured, protesters made their way to Inslee’s Olympia home where one state trooper stood guard. The trooper urged members of the crowd to stand back but they quickly surrounded the building chanting and he was forced to retreat to stand guard in front of the door. The crowd, which included several armed protesters, was pushed back as more state troopers arrived at around 6.30pm EST. Troopers said the governor remained safe.
ITV News
Joe Biden’s presidential win has been formally approved by the US Congress, just hours after four people died when pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Fuelled by the president’s false allegations that November’s election was “stolen” and “rigged”, hundreds of angry Trump supporters fought past police and breached the home of America’s federal government to demand lawmakers stop November’s presidential election from being ratified. Police shot dead one woman inside the Capitol and another three others died from “medical emergencies”. Fifty-two people have been arrested. Trump’s unbased allegations fanned the flames for thousands of protesters outside the White House early on Wednesday, where he goaded them to march to the Capitol, many of whom did. Senators were forced to flee Congress as protesters smashed windows and doors to enter the Capitol.
Mirror
Four have died as violent Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in scenes described as “as close to a coup attempt this country has ever seen”. A woman was shot dead by police during clashes inside the Capitol building and three others were reported to have died on Wednesday evening in Washington. The historic building was forced into lockdown and the National Guard had to be called in to restore order. A further three people died of separate “medical emergencies” on the Capitol grounds while police have made 52 arrests. An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was also found on the grounds of the US Capitol, as President-elect Joe Biden described the horrifying scenes as an “insurrection”.
BBC News
US lawmakers have certified Joe Biden’s election victory, hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attack that saw four people die. One woman was shot by police, while three others died as a result of “medical emergencies”, officials said. The mob, which had been encouraged by President Trump, stormed the building in a bid to overturn the election result, suspending a Congress session. The president-elect blasted the “insurrection”. President Donald Trump later called on them to “go home” while continuing to make false claims of electoral fraud. Twitter and Facebook later froze his accounts.
Telegraph
The images of angry hordes storming the US Capitol will forever taint Donald Trump’s legacy and marked one of the darkest moments in America’s recent political history. As his most fervent supporters scaled the walls of the hallowed seat of US democracy, many Americans watching on television around the country were shocked, appalled and disgusted. A bitterly divided United States will struggle to recover from a day that shook the country to its foundations. Watching the anarchic scenes of Trump supporters in red hats wandering the corridors of power, many Republicans will have decided they do not still want to be in a party led by Mr Trump. To many it looked like sedition, an attempted coup, and Mr Trump failed to stop it, even encouraged it. It was hard to see how the relationship between the president and the Republican party could recover.
Express
DONALD TRUMP has been locked out of his Twitter account for 12 hours after the social media platform removed two of his tweets. Twitter deleted two of President Donald Trump’s tweets on Wednesday as protests continue in Washington. Violent protests in Washington broke out ahead of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s US election win. Video footage shows thousands of protestors storming the building and fighting police. As a result of the demonstrations, the joint session of Congress certifying President-elect Biden’s victory was suspended and forced into recess. The first of the tweets deleted was a video which Facebook and YouTube already removed from their sites. In the video Mr Trump falsely claimed to have won November’s US election. He also said that he “loved” the protestors who stormed Congress and called them “very special”.
BBC News
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the “disgraceful scenes” in the US, after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed Congress and clashed with police. Rioters breached the Capitol building where lawmakers met to confirm Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. The PM said it was “vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power”. And Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “direct attack on democracy”. “The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power,” Mr Johnson tweeted.
City AM
The disturbance at Capitol Hill derailed the process of certifying the Biden electoral victory for a number of hours last night but was then resumed so the final confirmation of Biden’s win should be relatively straightforward. Moreover, the FTSE 100 had a stellar run yesterday as it closed up more than 3 per cent and it hit its highest level since level early March. For the third day in a row, the FTSE 100 was the best performer in terms of percentage gains of the major European indices but keep in mind it lagged behind its continental equivalents and now it appears that it is catching up, David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, tells City A.M. this morning. “The British index largely had a handful of mining, banking and oil stocks to thank for its impressive run this week.”
Brexit deal
Mail
Britain must not sign a Brexit deal for the City which leaves the industry as an EU ‘rule-taker’, the Bank of England’s governor warned yesterday. Andrew Bailey, whose first year at the Bank has been marred by the pandemic and Brexit jitters, said the UK could not simply pay ‘any price’ to reach a financial services agreement with the continent. Though the UK’s £130billion financial sector is one of the biggest parts of the economy, contributing around 7 per cent of output per year, City firms were largely left out of the EU trade deal signed by the Prime Minister last month. The Treasury plans to sign a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with the EU by the spring detailing how their relationship over financial services will continue. One option is so-called equivalence, where the UK and the EU agree to grant each other access to their markets if they deem their rules are closely enough aligned. But while the UK’s financial sector has granted the EU equivalence in 17 areas, Europe has so far refused to reciprocate.
Lockdown
Breitbart
England’s chief medical officer has said that there could be another lockdown next winter, seemingly regardless of whether the vaccine rollout is successful. Professor Chris Whitty made the remarks during a Downing Street press conference alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday evening. Predicting that even if the risk level for infection is lowered due to vaccine rollouts, the chief medical officer suggested that restrictions would be imposed on Britons for the foreseeable future. On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a third national lockdown in England with effectively no firm end date, saying only that “if things go well”, restrictions may start to be lifted in late February. Less than 24 hours later, senior minister Michael Gove extended the soft deadline further, pushing it back to March. Whitty said of easing lockdown: “What is going to happen over time is that the risk level is going to gradually decrease…things will be able to be lifted by degrees, possibly at different rates in different parts of the country.”
Vaccine
Mail
Approval of Covid vaccine batches is to be sped up drastically in a huge boost to the jab campaign. Amid growing concern over the slow pace of the rollout, sources told the Mail that testing would be cut from up to 20 days to just four. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, which is responsible for the checks, is also to increase staffing in a bid to accelerate the mass vaccination programme. It has just approved a second consignment of 500,000 doses of the Oxford jab – taking supplies beyond one million. It comes as the jab, produced together with AstraZeneca, starts to be rolled out from GP surgeries today. The expansion today comes amid hope that more than 700 sites will be delivering vaccines by the end of the week. Seven mass vaccination centres will open next week in London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Surrey and Stevenage. The vaccine is crucial because it is much easier to distribute than the Pfizer version, which needs storage at minus 70C.
Telegraph
After a year of missed targets and disappointments, Boris Johnson has not been deterred from making his latest Covid goal as ambitious and more important than any other. Britain has stolen an early lead in the race to inoculate its economy from long Covid but needs to ramp up its vaccine roll-out to lift restrictions squeezing the life out of sectors from restaurants to retail. The prime minister has set a “realistic” mid-February target to deliver the first jab dose to the top four priority groups – about 14m people who have suffered nine-tenths of Covid deaths. The prize is big for the countries that can execute a roll-out quickly: shorter restrictions means smaller economic damage, a lower unemployment peak, fewer insolvencies and an earlier end to the public borrowing binge. A rapid recovery is “heavily dependent on delivery of the vaccine roll-out programme, allowing restrictions to be eased from the end of the seasonal flu season in April and completely lifted by the end of June”, says Morgan Stanley economist Jacob Nell.
Express
A THIRD coronavirus jab – administered in a single-shot – could be approved in time to join the UK’s vaccination rollout, it is claimed. The jab by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, if approved in time, would help the Government reach its immunisation target of 13.2 million people by mid-February, the Daily Telegraph reports. Health officials have also confirmed patients in England will start to get Oxford and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines from their GP surgeries as of Thursday. The UK has ordered up to 52 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine. The move forms part of the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history. Nadhim Zahawi, minister for Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment, has told Sky News the goal of 13.2 million people requires a “herculean effort”. So far, 1.3 million doses have been administered.
Yahoo News
High street pharmacies will start to offer shots of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine next week as part of the government’s push to immunise more than 13 million of the most vulnerable people in the UK before mid-February. The news comes amid calls for the NHS to urgently expand the number of vaccination sites, with the British Medical Association urging every GP surgery in the country to join the vaccination effort amid soaring rates of infection and record numbers of Covid patients in hospital. A quarter of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week before Christmas were Covid related, the highest weekly proportion since mid-May. Of a total of 11,520 deaths registered across England and Wales in the week to 25 December, 2,912 (25.3%) mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, bringing the total to 92,070 as of 5 January. The pharmacies will offer shots of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine either on their premises or at designated sites following an NHS approval process that began in November. The health service is assessing 200 sites led by community pharmacies such as Boots and Lloyds which have committed to delivering more than 1,000 shots each a week.
Europe
Mail
Britons may understandably be feeling more than a little frustrated with their leaders right now during this new and more vicious phase of the pandemic. Covid infections are soaring in the UK, there are more patients hospitalised than at the peak of the first wave and, tragically, daily deaths yesterday topped the 1,000 mark. Then there is fury over your school closures, a developing row over who should get the vaccine — young or old — and problems with supply and distribution. Yes, you may feel things look grim, but let me tell you that many of us here in Europe are looking across the Channel with envy. The sclerotic and sluggish EU machine has, unforgivably, botched the roll-out of the vaccines, and the consequences are likely to prove fatal to many thousands of our citizens. The pandemic is almost a year old and EU leaders could have and should have seen the need for a swift, effective vaccine policy a mile off.
EU
Express
A FORMER French MEP has launched a furious attack against the Project Fear warnings and propaganda coming out of the European Union, warning ‘Frexit’ – the country’s own departure from the bloc – must happen “quickly”. French President Emmanuel Macron has been hugely critical of Brexit since the historic referendum in 2016, with his Government regularly threatening to deadlock talks by voting down agreements if the terms did not adhere to their red lines. But now huge pressure is building on the French President, with the coined phrase ‘Frexit’ gathering significant pace on social media and even among France’s own MEPs. Florian Philippot, who was Vice President of the National Front in France establishing The Patriots party in September 2017, claimed the scaremongering over the UK’s departure shows Europhiles have now become “very uneasy”. The former MEP of five years tweeted: “When the much-advertised (and desired) Brexit disaster does not occur, they claim the consequences will be visible over ten years.
Express
DONALD TUSK has sparked fury by urging the UK to work with Brussels to “react together to the Chinese repressions in Hong Kong” – despite him once raging during Brexit negotiations there is a “special place in hell” for Brexiteers without a plan. The former European Council President was a key figure during the negotiations on a Brexit Withdrawal Agreement between the EU and UK, frequently criticising Britain’s negotiating stance and often mocking then-Prime Minister Theresa May. But now Mr Tusk is urging the UK to come to the EU’s aide and help fight back against China over the draconian security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year. He wrote on Twitter: “The EU and UK should react together to the Chinese repressions in Hong Kong. “Let us show that despite Brexit, we are still a community when it comes to universal rights.”
Education
Mail
Fury erupted after Britain’s biggest teaching union sent a ‘gloating’ email telling members ‘You did it!’ after Boris Johnson closed all schools in Monday night’s lockdown announcement. Teachers were left appalled by the victorious tone of the message from the left-wing National Education Union (NEU) to its 500,000 members at the decision which left nine million pupils locked out of schools for the entire half term. Tory MPs also condemned the ‘appalling triumphalism’ of the militant NEU’s email and said if the union was representing shop workers, all the supermarkets would have closed months ago. The NEU’s message to its members last night (TUE) said: ‘We want to start by congratulating you all. It is never easy to stand up and be counted. It takes nerve and courage. ‘But you did it. You stood up for your own safety, for your pupils, their families and your communities.’
“we have a thousand years of our now coal”
You forget that Margaret Thatcher explained that it just was not economical to mine our own coal and that was why most coal mines had to be closed.
Yes but that might have been her ” big lie” no doubt coal economy was a problem and we could probably import it cheaper than much of what we had mined in some pits.
I seem to remember the original complaint from Europe was that the fall out from our factory chimneys was causing acid rain which was destroying all their forests.
I have always considered this was part of the warm up to the whole global warming pantechnicon which also included the fridge gases problem with the ozone layer
Hope I don’t drive you too mad……..Leonard you’re quote on our coal reaources is correct……as for being overpriced? That was THEN………we need NOW to go ‘full steam ahead” on coal production which will be the ‘life blood’ to our industrial survival……and a potential to rely less and less on the monstrous perfidious Chinese and the CCP.
What they are doing to Australia should be a lesson to the world on the power China wields, and uses, to have its way.
I know you are probably sick of my pointing out, for which I make NO apology……that China has THREE THOUSAND coal mines which helps to fuel its success…..plus they are opening coal mines, in many other countries, to fuel their power-packed economy and export drive.
We are fighting(?) to restore our fishing industry…..good…..but in terms of value, I suggest that the revival of our coal industry is of far greater value and importance…….and we don’t need to plead with anyone to begin THAT revival.
With regard to the US elections, time to move on I think. So far nothing has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that electoral fraud occurred did in fact take place. One thing to take on board, don’t use computers to count votes as a programme can be manipulated. Nothing better than a pair of human hands to count votes. The administration of the US election from start to finish needs to be held up as an example of how not to run an election period.
Hi Debbie, I see the “Naked Ballet Coming to Britain” page leads your review today. My computer hasn’t got enough pixels (unlike the £10k MP ones) I hope yours has enough to confirm the naked man in the picture is Trump showing his true colours now? If the picture showed a little more in the lower part it would be even more revealing. If it is Trump would you expect it to actually show a lot more!?
With hair like that, Robin, it might even be Boris. The mind boggles …
P.S. F.Y.I……………..Parkinson/Mohammed Ali Interview…..Youtube Nov. 1971.
This dreadful and catastrophic fiasco had largely been brought about by the Republicans themselves. Of course I do not exonerate President Trump for his miscalculation of relying upon ‘the mob’ to plead his case of gross Election corruption, which has clearly happened by design.
For four frustrating years the Republican Party has, by its silence and inaction in not fully supporting the president, long ago fuelled the tragedy of the storming of The Capitol, which I think has set back true democracy in America by at least five years, probably ten.
During which time China will be the only one to gain……but not by chance, but by design.
They have their fifty-year plan which is working like clock-work.
It is perfectly clear to me that, as will happen in this country and five or six others in Europe, before too long, the insane and ghastly nightmare of Multiculturalism, engineered by rabid Socialism and the illusion of ‘parity’ between the races, will surely ‘bring us all down’.
I was no supporter of Cassius Clay’s (Alias Mohammed Ali) brand of racism, but his one true indisputable observation on his objection to the mixing of the races is proving, much earlier than we expected, to be correct. Listen to his interview with Parkinson on the subject……….and reflect………………..his observations on race seem more and more, day by riotous day, to make perfect sense.
“the West is led by an ignorant collection of spineless poltroons”!
Well certainly that seems to be the case for the UK, but maybe there is a more sinister explanation when one considers the globalists apparent influence.
A lockdown next winter….More likely a few more before then. Neither the government or the advisor can be trusted any longer. Just like Johnson stating that the present lockdown will not end with a bang, and will be a gradual process. Boris Johnson should be bottled and offered as a remedy to Insomnia. He is sleep inducing……….
I wonder how long they will be able to keep under wraps the ‘cracks’ that are opening up in the so-called BREXIT free trade agreement. I have already read that Dutch and Belgian traders are refusing to send goods to Britain because of taxation rules. I have also discovered that I would not be able to buy any Montessori teaching aids for the foreseeable future for the same reason!!! The fishing ‘deal’ is being shown up for the scam it is.
What next will emerge? Will it eventually make a scandal big enough to encourage the “Conservatives” to ditch BJ and reform their party? Somehow I don’t believe that the ‘conservative’ (small ‘c’ intended) party can survive in its current form whatever it does. ‘Starker’ would turn out to be a Joe (Stalin) Biden! The future of British politics is going to be as volatile as in the USA before much longer. The cracks are getting bigger by the day!
It is worrying to see the parallels between the lead up to Pearl Harbour and the current situation with China.
“In 1940 Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to embargo all imports into China, including war supplies purchased from the U.S. This move prompted the United States to embargo all oil exports, leading the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) to estimate it had less than two years of bunker oil remaining and to support the existing plans to seize oil resources in the Dutch East Indies. Planning had been underway for some time on an attack on the “Southern Resource Area” to add it to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Japan envisioned in the Pacific.” Wiki
Starved of energy the Japanese military saw no alternative to securing a guaranteed supply by force. Hence Pearl Harbour.
Sun Yu in Beijing DECEMBER 21 2020 274
“Factories across China are falling silent and office workers are being forced to climb the stairs of high-rise buildings as a ban on Australian coal worsens a power shortage that is hitting everything from street lights to lifts.” Financial Times
Opencast mines in Australia provide the bulk of China’s coal imports and the need for energy supplies may explain China’s investment in a powerful navy. China is arrogant, powerful, with a political class which can ignore the wishes of its unfranchised population, and like Imperial Japan it sees world domination as its right. Is it sufficiently convinced that the West is led by an ignorant collection of spineless poltroons to risk seizing the resources of the same areas invaded by Japan in 1942? Here is a real danger for the world: there are a lot of poltroons about and their argument that pushing China too far may be dangerous is seductive. Will anyone point out that yielding to an implied threat of force is even more dangerous?
Interesting times indeed.
JF
Julian. Just think, if our idiots hadn’t closed down coal burning power stations, we could have imported all that coal from Oz!
China today is certainly more dangerous than Japan then but perhaps WW111 already happening – germ warfare.
Pauline,
what would we want to import coal for, we have a thousand years of our now coal. its just political nothing to do with economics
The comparison to Japan is interesting. Invaded IndoChina (subst Iraq) to secure oil reserves. For other parts of your anti-China post one could easily substitute the uSA
– arrogant, powerful, with a political class which can ignore the wishes of its unfranchised population (all hail bush)
– world domination as its right. (you could include imposition of uSA laws on sovereign citizens in other (their own) countries)
– convinced that the West is led by an ignorant collection of spineless poltroons
(poltroons, just like bourgeoisies is used regularly at discussions over lunch (somewhere)).
Le plus ça change . . .
USA
Some years ago they had an election in Venezuela when it was, I’ve read, the richest country in S. America with a standard of living then higher than in the US.
Voting machines were used.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
And everybody was kung fu fighting …
(Or, if you prefer, once more unto the breach dear friends.)
Is it so outrageous that the poltical right in the USA are now doing what the poltical left have been doing for decades to further their agenda?
Quite. The Demonrats have been content to let rampaging mobs burn and loot their cities for months.
Jake….Quid pro Quo?
Disastrous and most regrettable as this total madness at the Capitol was…… after the BLM riots, pillage, deaths, physical abuse, looting and burning – which I believe is still going on in some areas, it is not entirely surprising that there was a reaction from ‘the Right’.
I wonder whether a full or COMPREHENSIVE list of ALL instances of individual or Institutional fraud in all 50 Voting States and/or Counties or a complete list of all Sworn Affidavits presented to the Courts, has been compiled?
Surely it is not beyond the wit of Giuliani, whenever the question of ‘no evidence’ arises, to provide and show this List which must be,to say the least, substantial.p, if not overwhelming.
It really annoys me the way “journalists” and newsreaders always stick a “false” before the allegations of vote fraud in the US election. Not false at all : hundreds of whistleblowers and people putting their jobs and liberty on the line to bear witness say so. The real coup was by Biden’s handlers.
MWT Yes that annoys me too. I’ve learned to ignore those words but unfortunately most people probably swallow (believe) them.
So . . . looks like Biden has won then.
For BIDEN……..read OBAMA…….for FRAUD……read OBAMA……..for virtually everything that has gone wrong with American politics…..in the last twenty years…..read OBAMA……since he was ‘invented’, out of the male brothels and ‘steam-rooms’ of Chicago…………America has been ultra-corrupted.
Here is a ‘man'(?) who swears TO THE WORLD that he is a Christian……..yet who tells us reverently, glowingly …..that the greatest sound he has ever heard is the Muslim Call To Prayer. This is an affront to every Christian but surely illustrates to all just how much of an open fraud he really is.